The Heights' Cost of Low Prices

Hello fellow Americans, Houstonians, Tea Baggers, Frenchmen, and to my friend Mike Garcia who moved to Austin last weekend.

I just want to do a very quick update... My producers and I attended the Wal-Mart v. The People of Houston battle last night at the George R. Brown Convention Center. We have some exciting interviews and content coming in the next few days so please stay tuned! I want to give a couple of shout outs to Councilman James Rodriguez who bumped into us last night and to CultureMap, hot online publication here in H-Town.

I was tweeting from the event and noticed the tweets of others in the room representing various community organizations who stand opposed... thought I'd share +c)

StopHtsWalMart:
Michael Ainbinder just said this neighborhood "Quite frankly needs a little sprucing up." Gee, thanks for the insult. via TweetDeck

nonsequiteuse:
#stophtswalmart We don't care what it looks like, we care about the traffic it will draw. Stop wasting lipstick on the pig.

nonsequiteuse:
#stophtswalmart Didn't come for a WalMart infomercial. And claiming to be leader in lowering health care costs?!?!

As you can see, Wal-Mart has some work to do in the community. I will give the Mayor credit for breaking everyone up into groups of four to prevent any rioting, mass hysteria and chaos. It was a close one in there. Basically in a nutshell, developers and Wal-Mart want to build a shopping complex at the edge of the Houston Heights a location of Houston known best for its scenic beauty and historic neighborhoods. Seizing on the opportunity and quite frankly $$$ signs they see because of the explosion of Washington Avenue, it appears that the project is full-steam ahead!

This is a classic case of preservationism versus commercialism. We're quite certain of the outcome, but the community organizers standing against this development are banking on the idea of creating enough grief that this project will no longer appear attractive. This approach seems doubtful, I mean environmentalists who have chained themselves to logs have never stopped trees from falling in the forest... but stranger things have happened.

Stick around for videos of the event shortly and my interviews. Bobby James was at the event... love me some Bobby James.

-Signed
America's Choice for Houston's Voice
Matt Topolski of America